1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical component, an infrared camera, and a method for manufacturing an optical component.
2. Description of the Related Art
A chalcogenide glass is an appropriate optical member material that is not expensive and can be easily processed into a required optical element by molding, compared with germanium crystal and zinc selenide that have been used in the related art as materials of lenses for far infrared rays (in a wavelength of 8 μm to 14 μm). However, since a refractive index of a chalcogenide glass is 2.5 to 2.6 with respect to far infrared rays, the surface reflection is great and the transmittance remains at about 60%. Accordingly, it is difficult to obtain sufficient imaging light by merely processing a surface shape of a chalcogenide glass into a shape of a lens or the like. Therefore, an antireflection film for reducing the amount of the loss light due to surface reflection is provided on the surface of an optical element consisting of glass material for infrared rays (JP2011-221048A).
In an infrared transmissive optical element, the surface strength is increased in order to prevent scratches (JP1989-56401A (JP-564-56401A)). Further, light may be efficiently emitted from an optical waveguide (JP2003-215305A).